Other Vehicles Barred From Dedicated Lane, Signalling To Change For Simultaneous Right Turn New Delhi: This weekend, the Ambedkar Nagar-Moolchand Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor will go back to its original state, at least for now. Delhi High Court on Tuesday gave a direction that the traffic flow on the corridor should “revert” to what it was before being altered by a previous order. This means that the central dedicated lane will once again be reserved for buses and emergency vehicles, and other traffic won’t be allowed to enter it. Revoking the court’s earlier interim orders of May 30 and July 5, which had thrown open the bus lanes to all vehicles, a bench of Justice Pradeep Nandrajog and Justice Manmohan Singh ordered the buses back into their reserved lanes. “We direct that till the writ petition is decided, the traffic flow would revert to its movement / flow as per the BRT Corridor Traffic Flow System, meaning thereby the traffic which was flowing before its flow was altered under interim orders passed and to give effect to the same i.e. restoring status quo ante,” the bench said, asking the Delhi transport department to implement the order by September 15. The court also asked for a change in the signalling system to allow buses and cars to simultaneously move in the right direction at the intersections, a measure that was agreed upon by the counsel for both parties. “The signalling pattern will be changed to simultaneously permit cars and buses to move in the right direction at the intersections and the traffic marshals, as also the traffic policemen, to put in their best, as the non-bus traffic reaches the crossings, to ensure as far as possible that cars which have to take a turn in the right direction keep towards the right side of their road segment,” it said. The court rejected the suggestion to allow motorized and non-motorized vehicles in the BRT corridor with proper signage and signals, observing that it would be “impracticable” because of the “indisciplined drivers of motor vehicles in Delhi”. The bench passed the order after the counsel for the parties agreed that the existing system of all motorised vehicles plying in bus lanes needed to be changed since this had only caused the traffic situation to worsen. It took on record the submission by the Delhi government that the revised traffic flow management would be widely publicized and the corridor will be managed by both traffic marshals and cops. “We take on record the assurance made by counsel for the Delhi government that necessary signages would be put in place and wide publicity would be given for the revised traffic flow management and traffic marshals would be brought back as also adequate number of traffic policemen would be stationed, at least for the first few days, lest chaos reigns in the BRT corridor,” the court said, fixing September 21 as the next date of hearing. In its order, the court noted that even during the trial run conducted by the Central Road Research Institute (CRRI), there was a “considerable problem” in regulating the traffic at the intersection “for the reason, although very small in number, the buses which were plying on the left kerb of the road, on reaching the crossing had to wait for the right turn signal and in this manner hindered the flow of traffic, for the reason the drivers of the vehicles behind would hardly know as to in which direction the bus would move,” the court said.The bench, was hearing a PIL filed by an NGO, Nyay Bhoomi, for scrapping the BRT project to ensure smooth traffic movement on the 5.8-km corridor. It is seeking plying of all types of vehicles in the bus lane on the ground that most of the time bus lanes remain free while the condition in the other lanes, meant for cars and other vehicles, remains chaotic and people get stuck in jams for hours. After conducting a trial run allowing mixed traffic to ply in the bus lanes in May, the CRRI had submitted its survey report criticising the BRT corridor. The Delhi government, however, had opposed the CRRI report. The court rejected the suggestion to allow motorized and non-motorized vehicles in the BRT corridor with proper signage and signals, observing that it would be “impracticable”